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| author | marha <marha@users.sourceforge.net> | 2009-10-09 06:31:44 +0000 |
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| committer | marha <marha@users.sourceforge.net> | 2009-10-09 06:31:44 +0000 |
| commit | 06456f5db88b434c3634ede42bdbfdce78fc4249 (patch) | |
| tree | 97f5174e2d3da40faee7f2ad8858233da3d0166e /mesalib/docs/cell.html | |
| parent | 7b230a3fe2d6c83488d9eec43067fe8ba8ac081b (diff) | |
| parent | a0c4815433ccd57322f4f7703ca35e9ccfa59250 (diff) | |
| download | vcxsrv-06456f5db88b434c3634ede42bdbfdce78fc4249.tar.gz vcxsrv-06456f5db88b434c3634ede42bdbfdce78fc4249.tar.bz2 vcxsrv-06456f5db88b434c3634ede42bdbfdce78fc4249.zip | |
svn merge ^/branches/released . --username marha
Diffstat (limited to 'mesalib/docs/cell.html')
| -rw-r--r-- | mesalib/docs/cell.html | 138 |
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diff --git a/mesalib/docs/cell.html b/mesalib/docs/cell.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..30626b60b --- /dev/null +++ b/mesalib/docs/cell.html @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ +<HTML> + +<TITLE>Cell Driver</TITLE> + +<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mesa.css"></head> + +<BODY> + +<H1>Mesa/Gallium Cell Driver</H1> + +<p> +The Mesa +<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_%28microprocessor%29" target="_parent">Cell</a> +driver is part of the +<a href="http://wiki.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/gallium" target="_parent">Gallium3D</a> +architecture. +Tungsten Graphics did the original implementation of the Cell driver. +</p> + + +<H2>Source Code</H2> + +<p> +The latest Cell driver source code is on the master branch of the Mesa +git repository. +</p> +<p> +To build the driver you'll need the IBM Cell SDK (version 2.1 or 3.0). +To use the driver you'll need a Cell system, such as a PS3 running Linux, +or the Cell Simulator (untested, though). +</p> + +<p> +If using Cell SDK 2.1, see the configs/linux-cell file for some +special changes. +</p> + +<p> +To compile the code, run <code>make linux-cell</code>. +Or to build in debug mode, run <code>make linux-cell-debug</code>. +</p> + +<p> +To use the library, make sure your current directory is the top of the +Mesa tree, then set <code>LD_LIBRARY_PATH</code> like this: +<pre> + export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$PWD/lib/gallium:$PWD/lib/ +</pre> + +<p> +Verify that the Cell driver is being used by running +<code>progs/xdemos/glxinfo</code> and looking for: +<pre> + OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.3, Cell on Xlib +</pre> + + +<H2>Driver Implementation Summary</H2> + +<p> +Rasterization is parallelized across the SPUs in a tiled-based manner. +Batches of transformed triangles are sent to the SPUs (actually, pulled by from +main memory by the SPUs). +Each SPU loops over a set of 32x32-pixel screen tiles, rendering the triangles +into each tile. +Because of the limited SPU memory, framebuffer tiles are paged in/out of +SPU local store as needed. +Similarly, textures are tiled and brought into local store as needed. +</p> + + +<H2>Status</H2> + +<p> +As of October 2008, the driver runs quite a few OpenGL demos. +Features that work include: +</p> +<ul> +<li>Point/line/triangle rendering, glDrawPixels +<li>2D, NPOT and cube texture maps with nearest/linear/mipmap filtering +<li>Dynamic SPU code generation for fragment shaders, but not complete +<li>Dynamic SPU code generation for fragment ops (blend, Z-test, etc), but not complete +<li>Dynamic PPU/PPC code generation for vertex shaders, but not complete +</ul> +<p> +Performance has recently improved with the addition of PPC code generation +for vertex shaders, but the code quality isn't too great yet. +</p> +<p> +Another bottleneck is SwapBuffers. It may be the limiting factor for +many simple GL tests. +</p> + + + +<H2>Debug Options</H2> + +<p> +The CELL_DEBUG env var can be set to a comma-separated list of one or +more of the following debug options: +</p> +<ul> +<li><b>checker</b> - use a different background clear color for each SPU. + This lets you see which SPU is rendering which screen tiles. +<li><b>sync</b> - wait/synchronize after each DMA transfer +<li><b>asm</b> - print generated SPU assembly code to stdout +<li><b>fragops</b> - emit fragment ops debug messages +<li><b>fragopfallback</b> - don't use codegen for fragment ops +<li><b>cmd</b> - print SPU commands as their received +<li><b>cache</b> - print texture cache statistics when program exits +</ul> +<p> +Note that some of these options may only work for linux-cell-debug builds. +</p> + +<p> +If the GALLIUM_NOPPC env var is set, PPC code generation will not be used +and vertex shaders will be run with the TGSI interpreter. +</p> +<p> +If the GALLIUM_NOCELL env var is set, the softpipe driver will be used +intead of the Cell driver. +This is useful for comparison/validation. +</p> + + + +<H2>Contributing</H2> + +<p> +If you're interested in contributing to the effort, familiarize yourself +with the code, join the <a href="lists.html">mesa3d-dev mailing list</a>, +and describe what you'd like to do. +</p> + + +</BODY> +</HTML> |